Poems on Pregnancy and Birth

To bear a child. A creature that grows inside you, attached to your familiar body. How is he attached to your invisible soul?
My nine months of pregnancy became a time of enlightenment. It was a transformation beyond comparison, an experience of communicating with a new part of me who was turning into anther entity.
Pregnancy, which is an experience half the human race goes through, is indeed very personal. It is the ultimate intimacy that requires listening to new voices inside. Often, the reflection in the mirror offers you a stranger. The difference testifies to something great that is taking place within.
I endeavored to capture this strange wondrous process that had its share of fears, pain, distress and a sense of loss of freedom. This became an entire spectrum of emotions, rarely acknowledged by the happy myth of pregnancy. I struggled to remain faithful to myself and to gain access to my own depths that began ticking to a new biological clock. Yet, all through this stretch of time I was aware that when my child would emerge I would be a different person altogether,
For nine months I kept on writing. I did not put down my pen, even during the long hours of labor at the hospital. At last, I found myself crying and writing: "From the great circle of my belly a huge sun emerges. Oh my dear God, this flesh is alive!"

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